1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording method, a recorded product, an ink composition for ink-jet recording, an ink set, an ink cartridge, and an ink-jet recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
Hitherto, recorded products having retroreflectivity (retroreflector) have been used for, for example, traffic signs, traffic-safety goods, markings on roads (e.g., crosswalks and center lines), escape-route indicators. In the case where retroreflectivity is imparted to a recorded product, the recorded product has high visibility even under dark environments, e.g., at night and inside a tunnel.
The retroreflectivity of the exemplified recorded products is provided by the fact that the recorded products have layered structures. A typical example of the layered structure of a recorded product having retroreflectivity is a structure in which a reflective layer is arranged on a recording medium and a retroreflective layer that imparts retroreflectivity is arranged on the reflective layer. In such a case, there are different structures of the retroreflective layer for different purposes. Examples of the structures of the retroreflective layer include an open-type structure in which bare glass beads or the like are arranged, a close-type structure in which coated glass beads or the like are arranged, and an encapsulated-lens-type structure in which glass beads or the like are covered with a film.
In the case of producing such a recorded product having retroreflectivity, the production process has been often complicated in order to form the structure. Furthermore, a special step has been required depending on the structure, in some cases. To solve the problems, for example, JP-A-2000-303011 discloses a retroreflective printing ink composition containing glass beads, mica, and an adhesive resin and a retroreflective product. The patent document describes that the retroreflective product is efficiently produced by screen printing, gravure printing, coating, or the like.
Meanwhile, there is an ink-jet recording method as a highly efficient method for forming a recorded product. The ink-jet recording method is a method including flying droplets of an ink composition and attaching the droplets to a recording medium, such as paper. This recording method is characterized in that high-resolution, high-quality images can be recorded on various recording media.
JP-A-2000-303011 is an example of the related art.
However, it is very difficult to use the known retroreflective printing ink composition as exemplified above in the ink-jet recording method. One reason for this is that since the ink-jet recording method includes a step of ejecting the ink composition from a nozzle, the size of a solid component in the ink composition is limited to the size of the nozzle.